


Friendship Catching Fire. Or; When did Lucifer and Chloe fall in love?

by CJ_R



Series: Essays [8]
Category: Lucifer (TV)
Genre: Character Analysis, Friends to Lovers, Other, Unresolved Romantic Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-11
Updated: 2019-11-11
Packaged: 2021-01-27 13:02:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,802
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21392605
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CJ_R/pseuds/CJ_R
Summary: A look at the duet that started it all.
Relationships: Chloe Decker/Lucifer Morningstar
Series: Essays [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1414177
Comments: 11
Kudos: 43





	Friendship Catching Fire. Or; When did Lucifer and Chloe fall in love?

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone! This essay originally appeared on my Tumblr page under the same title. I'm cross-posting it here on AO3 for archival purposes. I hope you all enjoy!

I am shamelessly piggybacking off of [@lucks-eterna](https://tmblr.co/m_2-O--gceGNAYqt98hH8ug) for this essay - I’ve linked their [post](https://lucks-eterna.tumblr.com/post/188772850218/ok-so-recently-the-question-was-floated-on) so you can jump between essays for fun! Thank you so much for inspiring me to jump back into the world of _Lucifer_!

Apparently, there’s a question that seems to be floating around Twitter - “When did Lucifer and Chloe go from being friends and partners to falling in love with each other?” It seems pretty clear that the three episode arc of 2x10 - 2x13 is the first attempt at both of them acting like adults and acknowledging the developing relationship - but can we pin down the hour, the look that started it all?

Lucifer and Chloe have their separate journeys and timetables for falling in love, but I’d argue that The Moment that started it all is the same for both of them - the end of 1x09, when Chloe and Lucifer play their duet, Heart and Soul.

**Lucifer’s Side of Things: **

The first eight episodes of Season 1 have been setting up the moment he falls in love with Chloe. We’ve seen him move from fascination to blatant sexual interest to respecting each other as work partners and finally, most recently as of 1x08, jealousy of the time spent with Dan, who is _still her husband_ as of this point in the story! Lucifer has no real claim to Chloe’s life, and he’s unhappy without understanding why he might want the right to Chloe’s attention outside of work

I’ve written [elsewhere](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19926841) about 1x09 and the impact it has on Lucifer, but for purposes of this subject, what’s relevant is that this is the episode that builds on what Linda tells Lucifer about his outburst in her office - he’s finally getting in touch with his emotions. Letting his guard down. While he’s still defensive with everyone in his life, we see that this continues into the beginning of the episode as he realizes that, in the wake of Maze’s betrayal, he’s lonely without her. Maze is still a presence at LUX, but his world has been shaken. He’s angry at Maze, he’s furious with Amenadiel, Dan is a rival for Chloe’s attention, especially as they’re working on repairing their marriage, Linda has just put some (much needed!) professional distance between them and, as he says, “I’m not sure what we are,” when it comes to Chloe.

Lucifer desperately wants something to be the way he expects and when Maze offers an olive branch by drawing his attention to Father Frank, he thinks he’s found it. A corrupt priest, a sanctimonious, hypocritical follower of his Father’s, as proved by the fact that he’s walked into Lucifer’s bar to ask him for a favor! Lucifer spends about half of the episode trying to demonstrated his superior understanding that he understands exactly how the world works, attempting to hide the fact that he’s feeling so insecure about every major relationship in his life.

The problem with this plan is that Father Frank isn’t playing ball. Worse - he’s not only imperfect, but quite honest about his imperfections. He punched the murdered youth director. He has a past that includes assault and battery charges. He’s just imperfect enough that, when he challenges Lucifer’s skill with the piano, Lucifer can see enough similarities to open up and immediately bond with him over the music, forgetting himself for the first time we’ve actually seen in the show.

That moment changes how Chloe sees Lucifer - again. (The first time her perception is rocked is 1x04, when she sees the scars on his back).

This is the very first time Chloe sees Lucifer when he thinks he’s unobserved - she’s attempted it in the past, but he’s always been aware of her and has been in control. Now he’s completely unguarded, caught up in the moment and having fun - and we see the look on her face as she manages to sneak quietly in to listen to them, waiting for Lucifer to notice her. While Lucifer is absolutely putting on a performance, it’s not bound up in Lucifer’s ego or need to have the spotlight. It’s collaborative as he’s completely focused on that duet with Father Frank, eyes lit up, smile wide having so much fun in the moment that it becomes completely clear that the music he plays isn’t about getting attention from an adoring crowd; it’s something Lucifer simply loves to do. It’s the first time she sees Lucifer caught up in one of his private passions.

She’s enchanted. She smiles, softening and her own playful side comes out in response as, rather than let them know she’s there, she just waits for one of them to notice she’s in the room at all. Lucifer’s reaction is absolutely on point - he’s flustered and embarrassed. She’s caught him with his emotional pants down and it’s, in her own words, adorable.

And then Father Frank is killed and Lucifer prepares to punish the Spider in a total rage. It’s the first time Chloe sees Lucifer both obviously hurt and just barely hanging onto his control by a thread. His breathing becomes heavy and ragged and his tone ugly as he says “It’s time to pull the legs off the Spider,” before hoisting a rather heavy man at least two feet off the ground and screaming “WHY?!” at him, even as it’s clear that no gasped excuse the Spider can offer will be enough justification for his choice to kill Lucifer’s friend.

Chloe intervenes, calling him back to himself with his name and the reminder that his friend wouldn’t have wanted this. And Lucifer, as out of control as he seemed to Chloe in that moment, listens to her, letting the man go, honoring both his friend and Chloe’s duty as an officer of the law.

As they clean up the scene, Lucifer leaves, telling her that he’s fine - more polite fiction than lie, but either way it’s so untrue that the everything continues to bother Chloe late into the evening.

**Chloe’s Side of Things:**

When I first started watching Season 1, my thought was that a romance between a mortal woman and an immortal being doesn’t usually have much in the way of a happy ending. I was hoping that we’d actually see a more mature love between Chloe and Dan that involved a broken family and putting it back together by choice. So, I had actually been rooting for Dan and Chloe to patch their marriage back up from the pilot all the way up through the very end of 1x08, when it’s revealed that Dan has been lying to Chloe about Palmetto. In fact, if I remember correctly, I think I yelled at my screen, “DAMMIT, DAN!”

It was not the last time. But that’s a different [essay](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19707481) altogether.

1x09 is the first time the audience knows that, no matter what, Dan and Chloe’s marriage is over. Lucifer may be the Devil and that may come with a lot of immortal baggage, but the extent to which Dan has been lying to her is laid bare in this episode. The moral event horizon in this marriage has been crossed. Which means that, while Chloe is nowhere near ready to acknowledge, much less do anything about it, there’s space in her life for a new love.

This episode is pivotal for Chloe during the scene in her home, on the couch eating takeout with Dan. If she wants to put her marriage back together, it’s critical that she and Dan spend time together, that they be a unit that draws strength from each other on days when the world seems sadder and unjust for having taken a good man before his time. She has a choice in this moment - to open up to Dan about the events of her day; to share her worry about her partner with her husband, who should be a source of strength to her. Instead she asks Dan “Can we do this another time?”

And Dan, preoccupied with the consequences of his betrayal closing in on him simply lets her go. As he’s done time and time again.

When given a very clear choice between Dan and Lucifer, she choses Lucifer, despite the late hour, to offer (and receive) comfort for the day’s events with each other. Lucifer begins the episode not knowing what his relationship is to Chloe, but she bookends the episode with the simple declaration, “I thought you needed a friend.” Lucifer may have lost Father Frank, but he is neither friendless nor alone in this moment.

In a single choice, Chloe has aligned herself with Lucifer, defining their relationship for the first time as friendship. It’s a platonic declaration as she smiles and brushes aside his defensive innuendo, but even in this clear, declarative moment of friendship, there’s the foreshadowing of more in the choice of music; Heart and Soul. It’s very simple, in contrast to the challenging jazz number that Lucifer and Father Frank played, but the lyrics are revealing.

“Heart and soul, I fell in love with you

Heart and soul, the way a fool would do, madly

Because you held me tight

And stole a kiss in the night

Heart and soul, I begged to be adored

Lost control, and tumbled overboard, gladly

That magic night we kissed

There in the moon mist

Oh! but your lips were thrilling, much too thrilling

Never before were mine so strangely willing

But now I see, what one embrace can do

Look at me, it’s got me loving you madly

That little kiss you stole

Held all my heart and soul.”

There’s also the choice of a duet - Lucifer invites Chloe to share one of his passions, laughing with her at her lack of technical skill, but still providing an appropriate accompaniment so that they can play together. Both of them have let their barriers down and are allowing the other one into their intimate inner lives.

**Callbacks:**

If we need a reminder of the importance of this moment to them both, we get it in 3x23, as Lucifer attempts to recreate every meaningful moment to the two of them in an attempt to return to the status quo of friendship that was established here in 1x09. Of all of the recreated scenes, however, Heart and Soul is the only one that Chloe echoes, picking out the melody on the piano when she thinks she’s alone (echoing Lucifer believing he was alone as he played both with Father Frank and in the aftermath, before realizing Chloe was there).

Sure enough, as she plays, who is listening to her but Lucifer as a preface to admitting how he feels about her, literally laying his heart and soul bare to her - and she echoes the lyrics with a kiss in the night, full of promise as their friendship finally catches fire.


End file.
